We are officially only 5 days away from Valentine’s Day. (Saturday, February 14th) I don’t about you mamas, but one of the things I look forward to is the little chocolate valentine my hubby gets for me every year. Chocolates filled with pecans, almonds, coconut and caramel are some of my favorites, but despite my 30 plus years of eating chocolate, I was shocked to find I don’t know nearly as much about it as I thought. After doing some Googling here are 5 things about Chocolate I bet you didn’t know.

1. Chocolate is an endangered treat. Drought and disease have cut chocolate production. As a result, many cocao farmers have dropped the cash crop leading to at least a 10 percent increase in the sot of chocolate, according to Consumer Reports.

2. There are 30 to 40 beans in each cacao pod. That means it takes 47 cocoa beans to make a 1.5 oz Hershey bar. That’s a lot of cocoa beans per grocer aisle!

3. Valentines day isn’t the biggest chocolate holiday. Halloween is number 1, followed by Easter.

4. The scientific name for the tree that chocolate comes from, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”

5. It’s believed that people who are allergic to chocolate are actually allergic to cockroaches. According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), around eight insect parts are typically found in a bar of chocolate.

Muffy Mendoza is an author, speaker and founder of Pittsburgh Brown Mamas, a support group for nearly 4,000 African-American moms in the Pittsburgh region. To further fill the void Muffy has created a line of educational products focused on helping Black moms be the best moms, too. Her first book, The Brown Mama Mindset: A Blueprint for Black Moms on Life, Love & Home, was featured at the 2018 Essence Festival and is currently sold in various cities across the U.S. Muffy champions the beauty of Black motherhood everywhere she goes, even on the TEDx stage. Find out more about Muffy on muffymendoza.com.